@article{Zhao2023, 
author = {Jingyi Zhao and Chen Li and Xue-Wang Gao and Ke Feng and Hao Liu and Sijie He and Wenhua Zhao and Shumin Yang and Jianqun Shao and Ling Ye and Bin Chen and Nan Xie and Chen-Ho Tung and Li-Zhu Wu},
title = {Quick photofabrication of functional nanospheres from de novo designed peptides for NIR fluorescence and MR imaging},
year = {2023},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {16},
number = {3},
pages = {4029-4038},
keywords = {synthetic peptide, photocrosslinking, encapsulable nanosphere, imaging nanoprobe, dityrosine, de novo design},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-022-4826-0},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-022-4826-0},
abstract = {Combining the noncovalent and covalent interactions, a series of peptide amphiphiles were designed de novo and synthesized to architect functional assemblies by means of photochemistry. The strand of peptide sequence was structurally capped with photoactive tyrosine-tyrosine (YY) motifs at both termini, and the spacing was filled by alternating of hydrophilic D (L-aspartate) and hydrophobic X (ε-aminocaproic acid) structure. Upon visible-light irradiation, these de novo designed peptides underwent rapid photocrosslinking within merely 10 min. Interestingly, the modulation of alternating D–X pairs in occupying spacer would adjust molecular amphiphilicity, regulate charge distribution, and control particle size and loading capacity of peptide nanospheres (PNS) in aqueous media. With entirely peptide-based matrix, this PNS system could host cationic indicators of fluorescent rhodamine and magnetic GdIII for exemplar near infrared (NIR) fluorescence and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, which paves a pathway to biomaterial and biomedical applications using de novo designed peptides.}
}